Christmas has always held a special place in my heart. Not because of the gifts or because of all the free time it blesses me with, but because I have always associated the Christmas season with being with family. I remember at a young age.

Learning to say NO on any other day is hard, but learning to say NO during the holidays is worse. You could be pulled in all sorts of directions with family gatherings, potlucks, gift exchanges, reunion Christmas parties, Christmas traditions, etc. etc. where does it end?

In Day 1 of our Coping with the Holidays series, we talk about the art of shopping for gifts without the stress. What's Christmas without presents- am I right? In the spirit of the season, it's easy to get caught up in giving and receiving gifts to our loved ones and friends.

Picture the halls decked in holly, steaming cups of hot chocolate, colourful gift wrapped presents bundled below the extravagant Christmas tree and the meticulously organized table setting with a juicy turkey taking centre stage.

Studies have shown that there is a correlation between the anticipation of Christmas and rising stress levels. The more that you look forward to the Christmas season, the greater amount of stress you feel.

I am an avid avoider of Christmas songs in November. I simply don't understand how we can jump from Thanksgiving one day and right into the Christmas season the next day.

Welcome to Day 1 of our Twelve Days of Christmas: Coping with the Holidays Series. For the next few weeks, Empathic Counselling Centre will be sharing our secrets to dealing with holiday stress and our life hacks that have been tried and tested.

When I decided to open Empathic Counselling Centre, I knew that I didn't want to just be another practice. I didn't want to simply meet clients all week and think that I was done (not that there's anything wrong with this - some practitioners are very content in doing so). However, I knew that I wanted more from Empathic.

Self-esteem is a reflection of one's emotional evaluation of their self-worth. There is such thing as negative and positive self-esteem, each with it's own defining features. Negative self-esteem occurs when we have little value in ourselves.

Stress is a normal part of life. Without it, nothing would get done. We need stress or motivation in our lives to pay bills on time, put food on our table, or to do well at our jobs.